Technology: The Mobile Youth Pastor

Randy Brown / Powerhouse Youth Ministry / Atlanta, Georgia / randysbrown@gmail.com

(This is the next in our series of Feature Articles from Youth Leaders Only 102 – which has the theme of TECHNOLOGY: Doing Ministry in the 21st Century.)

April 2016 marks my 26^th year of student ministry. The passion for ministering and caring for students over the years has remained the same, but the style of ministry has changed drastically. When I first started on this ministry journey, my goal was to create programs and processes that would attract student to the church where they would hopefully have an encounter with God and with students their own age that could encourage and challenge them to follow Christ. As our world has become more mobile and seemingly more disconnected, youth leaders must become more mobile and agile in our approach to reaching this generation for Christ.

Multitask

We operate in a world that is growing more and more complex. We no longer have the luxury to sit back and wait for students to come to us. We must engage them where they are. Social Media is an area where we can engage students on a continuous basis. Our ministries can interact with students on Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, smartphone apps, and websites. In order to do this, we must constantly be updating the info that we share. I use an app called Buffer which allows me to schedule posts through out the day that will post automatically. I schedule a week’s worth of posts on Monday that will post to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I also use an app called Publish that will do the same thing for…

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Missional

Student ministry for years has been built around an “Attractional” model of ministry, which implies that we have the best and biggest show in town to draw kids from across our city. The more kids we had coming the more successful we would feel. We felt that we had really accomplished something great if our events and programs were well received and well attended. I have realized that anyone with minimal talent and ability can draw a crowd. What we need is to see our role as that of a missionary. We have been called not only to reach a generation but also a new culture. We must be willing to…

To read the rest of what Randy wrote, use this link.